Off the top of my head I can't remember the New Zealand Warriors giving as many players the flick as they have this season. As I explored in Part One of The Warriors Overhaul, this is necessary to accommodate two of the biggest Warriors' signings ever in Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Issac Luke. But the cull of 2015 isn't solely thanks to the arrivals of players on plenty of dosh.

A lot of the noise around the Warriors has been about their 'culture', or lack of a positive culture that breeds success. To me this stems from the belief that a lot of the Warriors' players who come through the Warriors' system have been able to plant their backsides firmly in their comfort zone. In Auckland, where most of these players are form, everything is nearby and in a very general way, the adversity levels haven't been overly high at Mt Smart.

It's a fact of life that the Warriors can't keep all the players that they develop. Like, it's actually impossible to keep them all because they do develop so many players but the extent to which former Warriors players have improved when they have left the Warriors is the worry. The immediate reaction from a silly media joker or an everyday punter when they see players like Sio Siua Taukeiaho in blockbusting form is to rip into the Warriors for letting these players go, but if these players aren't performing with the Warriors then you can't blame the Warriors for allowing a player like Taukeiaho to move on.

This, however, does highlight the issue of the Warriors' culture as they and us as Warriors fans watch other NRL clubs get the best out of players who the Warriors couldn't get to fire. 

Part of the reason why I have been eager for coach Andrew McFadden to be given time before making any crazy judgements about his ability as the coach of the Warriors is because I can see what the plan is. McFadden and Jim Doyle are clearly trying to change the roots and foundations of the Warriors and a lot of this has to do with firing a rocket up the backsides of the fringe top-25 squad members and those who consistently turn out for the reserve grade side. I believe that many reserve grade players, without pointing out anyone in particular, were enjoying their comfort zone too much and perhaps it is a mark of the Warriors' culture that that comfort zone consisted of sporadically playing in the NRL while calling the NSW Cup their home. 

In a weird twist, the 2015 cull will only increase the number of players of former Warriors running around for other clubs in the NRL. That could mean that the noise about the Warriors letting the good ones go will only get louder and more frustrating because players that they let go like Nathaniel Peteru, Brad Abbey, Siliva Havili and Sebastine Ikahihifo could improve greatly next season and beyond.

The cull started mid-season with Peteru released to join the Gold Coast Titans. Peteru hadn't been able to work his way into the first-grade frame with the Warriors and the Titans needed a big prop to bolster their depth. Peteru's departure wouldn't have caught the eye of casual NRL fans, but it did provide us a glimpse into the mindset of the Warriors as they let a promising prop leave whereas in the past they would possibly have given him a nice new deal only to keep him in reserve grade.

Peteru was joined by Suaia Matagi as a mid-season departure with Matagi being picked up by the Roosters. Matagi would have been a useful prop to have in the second half of the season when the Warriors' depth was severely tested. I don't think there is much more to the departure of Matagi and Sam Rapira (who will head to the Super League) than circumstance as young props like Albert Vete and Sam Lisone surpassed them and left them in their wake. 

That's also a key factor in the cull. A lot of players who had plateaued were quickly overtaken on the depth chart by enthusiastic youngsters which can only be a positive.

We all know about the departures of Sam Tomkins and Chad Townsend. There were a bunch of different factors at play here with money and individual circumstances playing their roles and the same can be said about Nathan Friend. These departures don't stand out because they are repeated at every NRL club any professional sporting team, but when combined with the loss of many other familiar names, they add up and are an example of the immense change going down at Mt Smart.

Two of the more interesting departures are Siliva Havili and Sebastine Ikahihifo, who will both join the St George Dragons next season. I find these two players themselves to be incredibly interesting as they are both talented players who have struggled to really establish themselves in the NRL with the Warriors. You can see that they should be in the NRL, but they never really filled you with confidence that they would be on the Warriors team sheet each and every week.

I think both Havili and Ikahihifo will benefit greatly from getting out of their comfort zone by moving to the Dragons. The Dragons appear to have a great mentality where everyone buys into what coach Paul McGregor wants and the fact that they made the top-8 this season was due to their forward pack living up to that 'team of champions vs a champion team' saying - the Dragons forward pack was made up of solid NRL pros who all did their bit very well. That suits Ikahihifo perfectly as he always provided the Warriors with energy and enthusiasm, while Havili will be eyeing up a bench spot behind Mitch Rein who rarely plays 80 minutes. The Dragons seem like the perfect destination for both Havili and Ikahihifo, a much better place than the Warriors where they got nothing more than sporadic game time.

Even more intriguing are the departures of Ngani Laumape and Glenn Fisiiahi to rugby. The Warriors, under their previous management, made their way through rugby's talent pool to boost their Under-20s team and now rugby has come back to bite. However, much like Ikahihifo and Havili who had players ahead of them on the depth chart, Laumape and Fisiahii simply weren't factors in 2015. It would have been extremely difficult for the Warriors to match the money on offer from rugby for Laumape and Fisiahii - just think about how much money is being soaked up by Tuivasa-Sheck, Luke, Mannering, Matulino, Vatuvei, Hoffman, Thompson, Johnson, Hurrell, Lillyman, etc. 

Laumape was highly unfortunate to suffer a season ending injury before the season began which gave Solomone Kata a sniff and he never looked back. Fisiiahi was simply never going to have his contract upgraded given his own long history with injury and he had little impact in limited opportunities this season. From a Warriors' perspective, the losses of Laumape and Fisiiahi are easy to absorb and they weren't worth sacrificing salary cap space for while from the players' perspective. They get nice new deals and more game time in rugby. Great for all parties.

Brad Abbey is perhaps the one player who will spark the most outrage among fans and media as there's a high chance that we will all see him ripping up for the Bulldogs in the near future. To keep Abbey as a back-up to Tuivasa-Sheck when the Bulldogs clearly have plans for Abbey to be their NRL fullback would be dumb from the Warriors. This is somewhat of a trend from Doyle and the Warriors as they aren't standing in the way of players who have offers and opportunities presented to them while the path ahead of them at the Warriors is cluttered.

The cull will see a vastly different Warriors group be presented to fans next season given that many names we've come to know like the back of our hands won't be there. The fact that this will see more former Warriors performing well around the NRL especially shouldn't overshadow how exciting it has been to watch the Warriors, thanks to Jim Doyle, make some ballsy decisions. It's clear that the Warriors are heading in a different direction to where previous management were going and while 2015 might have been a horrible failure, the cull signals that change is definitely taking place.